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Over the weekend, the Municipal Building at 1 Centre Street had a fire break out on its 20th floor. Luckily, firefighters were able to control the fire (seven had minor injuries), and the FDNY is still investigating its cause - only maintenance workers were around on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. We're glad that the Municipal Building is okay, because it is easily one of the most awesome buildings in the city. Designed by McKim, Mead and White (the firm's first skyscraper), the 34 floor building was completed in 1914 and now houses various city offices. For instance, the Marriage Bureau is there, so that's where the marriages are performed; the Borough President and Public Advocate also work out of there, along with 30,000 city employees. And at the top is the Adolph A. Weinman-designed Civic Fame, which is the tallest statue in the city after the Statue of Liberty. Gothamist's favorite view is from the west, when we walk on Chambers Street and see the building at end. The City Store, which is located in the Municipal Building, has a cool Municipal Building ornament.
See some photographs on Flickr - you'll figure out which ones are of the NYC one. Oh, and the fire was in the offices of the Division of Real Estate Services (we think that's the agency that sets up real estate auctions and the like).
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Gotta love that this building later inspired a whole mess of Stalinist architecture.
I'm still a bit struck by this building each day. I'm looking at taking photos from the roof my building; here's one
http://flickr.com/photos/darrellsilver/68477637/
I think I still like the woolworth building as my favorite.
The design was originally McKim, Mead and White's bid for grand central, which they lost so they repurposed it for this.
The vaulted ceilings above the subway and the tunnel over chambers street are also legit (compared to the fake versions at the custom's house by cass gilbert), and were _very_ expensive.
This is one of my favourite buildings in the city. I love seeing it grow larger as I dodge the stupid tourists who cannot stay on their side of the Brooklyn Bridge bike path. Somewhere I have some old postcards and prints of it from around the time it was built. If I knew where they were I'd scan them and link them, but alas I cannot.